“Your Vote Doesn’t Matter”: Despite Majority Voting for Medical Pot, FL Lawmakers Ban Dispensaries
The majority of voters in Florida supported legalizing medical marijuana—but now the cities with the most support for the measure are banning dispensaries.
By Rachel Blevins
TheFreeThoughtProject.com
September 2, 2017
When the vast majority of voters in Florida came together in 2016 and voted to legalize medical marijuana, they had no idea that even though the measure passed, lawmakers would begin pushing against it and banning marijuana dispensaries without the public’s consent.
The Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Board rebuked local lawmakers in a recent op-ed, and called them out for working against the 72 percent of voters who supported the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes:
“It is hard enough to get people to actually vote, as simple as that task may be. It is even harder when elected officials tell people essentially, that your vote means absolutely nothing. But that’s the message voters are getting in South Florida, after the state voted overwhelmingly to allow dispensaries for medical marijuana. When the medical marijuana amendment was on the ballot last November, 72 percent of Florida voters—an overwhelming majority—supported it. Those voters understood that the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes would be a real source of pain relief for many folks who were suffering with various diseases.”
The board noted that so far, at least six cities in south Florida have banned, or plan to ban, marijuana dispensaries, making it even harder for their sick residents to have access to the natural medicine that can provide treatment.
Dispensaries have now been banned in Sea Ranch Lakes, where 63 percent of voters supported medical marijuana; in Southwest Ranches, where was 70 percent of voters supported it; in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, where support was at 73 percent; and in Royal Palm Beach, where 74 percent of voters supports medical marijuana. Other cities considering bans on dispensaries are Boca Raton and Coral Springs, both of which saw support for medical marijuana at 76 percent.
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